Do we have to have opinions about everything?

Q: I like doing these call-in shows, and the host turned the tables on me and said: “Well, what would you do about the Iran-American nuclear negotiations?” I’ve often said that call-in radio is a rushed judgment from a distance without a lot of facts. I couldn’t make much of a statement because I’m not at the negotiating table, seeing the give and take and the dynamics. Would it have been more intelligent for me to use my intuition and blurt out something about the Iran-American talks, even though I’m thousands of miles away, or is it the better part of valor to let what you might call an elite group work face to face and deal with these negotiations?

Kim: Well what does you intuition tell you? [Laughter] I think honestly in a situation like – I don’t know how it unfolded – I feel like I can’t have an opinion because I don’t know enough about it, and I don’t really feel at this point that this is the most important issue for me to educate myself on.

There is this consciousness that has crept in – and it’s also in Denmark, but it’s worse in the U.S., I think – that we should be able to solve very complex problems in a 20-second sound bite. And it just can’t be done. I feel that there is this consciousness projected upon people that we should have an opinion about everything, that if you are put on the spot like that you should have an opinion. But I have come to the point where I realize that – well, first of all I’ve given up having opinions about anything.

That doesn’t mean I couldn’t say something about certain topics. But in order to do that, I really have to not only study the outer situation, but also process in my own mind: “What does my intuition really tell me about this?” That takes time and effort. There are a lot of topics – like they just had an election in Denmark, for example – where I don’t have an opinion because I just don’t feel I know enough about it. So that’s what I would say: “I don’t know enough to have an opinion here.” What’s wrong with that? Who says I have to be able to give an answer about any question that comes up?